Category Archives: Good Eats

Blackberries spread like the plague here on Vashon and I never thought I’d say this, but they really are quite a nuisance. They’ve got nasty thorns all over and they’ll sprout a foot overnight. I’d been battling them all spring/summer but the berries finally started ripening about a month ago and they have officially earned their keep in my yard. They’re really tasty. They’re everywhere.

We’ve been harvesting them near daily and haven’t even come close to putting an inkling of a dent in them. It takes me maybe 15-20 mins to come back with 2 lbs worth.

Plus they’re healthy — antioxidant packed, 100% organic (wild-grown so that’s a given), blah blah. Back in Cali, we’d pay $3-$4 for a tiny little box of them, probably just several ounces worth. So anyway, one thing we’ve been doing with them is jamming them. It’s fairly easy.

Sitting down and enjoying a post-show café au lait and beignet from the legendary Café Du Monde (est. 1862) is probably one of my favorite things about visiting New Orleans, and has become somewhat of a tradition for us. Beignets (roughly pronounced ben-neeay) are a French pastry made from deep fried dough…basically a French doughnut. They come absolutely doused in powdered sugar and make a heavenly combo when paired with Café Du Monde’s café au lait with chicory. Dipping the beignets in the coffee has double benefits — sweetening your coffee with the sugar on the beignet, and soaking your beignet in coffee goodness. I didn’t realize this till our last visit, but the coffee is half chicory, which accounts for it’s unique and recognizable taste. Anyhow, all that to say, YUM.

At the tail end of Bourbon St. (yuck) lies a rickety looking shack built between 1722 and 1732. Once owned by pirate Jean Lafitte and supposedly the oldest continually running bar in America. ‘Nuff said.

For good measure, some random shots I took with my phone on this visit:

Following up my previous post about Sriracha…Try this on your fried eggs: A dash of soy sauce (be very conservative, a few drops even) and a bit of Sriracha to taste. I go over easy on my eggs so the soy sauce and Sriracha mix up with the yolk. Fair warning: It’s tempting to pile on more and more Sriracha every time. It may sound a bit weird but just try it. Yes, I am asian.

Also, a little note on fried eggs — Learn to flip ‘em in the pan sans spatula and with a flick of your wrist. You may bust a few yolks in the process, but it’ll make your life so much easier. Plus, it’s a basic and essential cooking technique that a lot of people seem to overlook. Get into it.